Azerbaijan: An Unending Succession

A FEW WEEKS AGO, when the ailing president of Azerbaijan arranged to
have power transferred to his son, a U.S. State Department spokesman
was asked for comment. You might think that a pro-democracy
administration would have some choice words for an authoritarian
regime preparing to become the first hereditary fiefdom among
post-Soviet republics. But the spokesman proclaimed the handoff
"fully consistent with the Azerbaijani constitution" and had nothing
more to say.